1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a lever-type connector and a housing therefor.
2. Description of the Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 5,476,390 discloses a lever-type connector with a female housing. A lever is mounted on the female housing and is formed with a cam groove. The cam groove is engageable with a cam pin on a mating male housing. The housings are positioned initially with the lever at a connection starting position and with the cam pin facing the entrance of the cam groove. The lever then is rotated so that the cam pin moves along the cam groove to pull the housings together. The connector relies on the leverage of the lever to connect the two housings with a small force.
The above-described housings may be left partly connected if the rotation of the lever is stopped before the housings are connected properly. An inertial locking mechanism has been studied to prevent the housings from being left partly connected. The inertial locking mechanism temporarily provides a large operation resistance to the lever in the connecting process. The resistance is reduced during the rotation and the lever is rotated to the ending position in a single a stroke.
The cam groove could have a steep area to give a high operation resistance to the lever. However, the increase of the maximum operation resistance on the lever could cause an operator to infer incorrectly that the connection is complete. Thus, the operator may stop the connecting operation prematurely, and the connector may be left partly connected.
The invention was developed in view of the above problem and an object thereof is to ensure that two housings can be connected properly with high reliability.